Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio (VNA) understands that your health information is personal. We are committed to protecting medical information about you. We create and maintain a record with information about the care and services you receive from VNA of Ohio to provide the highest quality care and to comply with legal requirements. This Notice of Privacy Practices (Notice) applies to all information about your care that VNA of Ohio (and all of the people and places that make up VNA of Ohio) may create, maintain or receive. This includes information that VNA of Ohio receives from other doctors and medical facilities that are not part of VNA of Ohio, but that VNA of Ohio keeps that will help us give you better care. The Notice tells you about the ways we may use and share your health information, as well as the legal duties we have about your health information. The Notice also tells you about your rights under federal (United States) and state (Ohio) laws. In this Notice, the words “we,” “us,” and “our” mean VNA of Ohio and all the people and places that make up VNA of Ohio, which are described below.

Privacy Notice [45CFR Section 164]

This notice describes your right to have protected health information and the duties of the Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio (VNA of Ohio) which includes all VNA entities and services, with respect to your protected health information under the Federal Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. Section 552a).

You can expect confidentiality of your personal health information (PHI) and protection of your medical records.

Your PHI will be used only for purposes of treatment, payment and health operations unless otherwise authorized by you.

An example of the use of your PHI for the purpose of treatment: The nurse taking care of you reports lab results to your doctor’s office.

An example of the use of your PHI for the purpose of payment: The authorization nurse reports your progress to your insurance company to receive approval for payment of visits.

An example of the use of your PHI for the purpose of healthcare operations: The nurse’s documentation must be transmitted to the State of Ohio regulatory body for data collection.

An authorization signed by you is required before we can release your PHI for purposes other than treatment, payment and health operations.

Exceptions that do not require your prior authorization include public health risks, audits and surveys, law enforcement, serious threat to health and safety, military, national security and workers compensation.

If VNA of Ohio deems it necessary to release your PHI for any of these reasons, we will notify you of the necessity to disclose this information. This authorization may be revoked in writing. The revocation will not be in effect until receipt of such revocation.

VNA of Ohio may contact you to arrange for home visits, to provide appointment reminders or to provide information to you about treatment alternatives or other services which may be of interest to you.

Individual Rights regarding Personal Health Information (PHI)

As an individual, you have the right to access and obtain a copy of your PHI unless otherwise specified by Section 164.524 of the Federal Register.

Any such request pertaining specifically to VNA of Ohio Hospice & Palliative Care services must be submitted in writing to VNA of Ohio.

As an agency, VNA of Ohio has the right to deny you access to your PHI. The denial of access must be made in writing and has a review process.

As an individual, you have the right to review a decision to deny access to your PHI in certain situations. Request for review must be in writing.

As an individual, you have the right to an accounting of disclosures of your PHI other than for treatment, payment and health operations.

The accounting will be provided to you in writing within 60 days of your request. Exceptions of disclosures to be accounted for include 1) for purposes of treatment, payment and healthcare operations, 2) disclosures to you as an individual, 3) disclosures to persons involved in your care, 4) national security or intelligence purposes, 5) correctional institutions or law enforcement officials, 6) disclosures prior to HIPAA compliance date (April 2003).

As an individual, you have the right to request restriction of use and disclosure of PHI.

VNA of Ohio need not agree with the restriction.

If the restricted information is needed to provide emergency treatment, VNA of Ohio may use it or disclose the restricted information to a health care provider to provide such treatment.

As an individual, you have the right to receive all communications about your PHI in a confidential manner.

You have the right to request alternative ways for VNA of Ohio to contact you regarding your health care.

As an individual, you have the right to request amendment or correction of inaccurate or incomplete PHI.

If VNA of Ohio agrees with the amendment, VNA of Ohio will amend the record and notify others identified by you of the amended information.

VNA of Ohio may deny a request for amendment or correction if the information 1) was not created by VNA of Ohio, 2) is not available for inspection and copying under Section 164.524 of the Federal Register, or 3) is deemed accurate and complete by VNA of Ohio.

A written notice of disagreement or amendment must accompany all further disclosures of personal health information. The same notice will be shared with persons identified by you as having received your health information, which has been amended.

VNA of Ohio will apply sanctions - up to and including dismissal - against its employees who fail to comply with our privacy policies.

As an agency, the Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio is required to abide by the terms of this notice.

Changes to this Notice: VNA of Ohio reserves the right to change the terms of the provisions in this notice as it applies to PHI. A revised Privacy Notice will be communicated by mail to all active patients of VNA of Ohio prior to the effective date of the amended terms. The most current Notice will be posted on VNA of Ohio website with version date noted at the bottom of the page. www.VNAOhio.org

You may request a copy of the Notice that is currently in effect each time you are admitted to VNA of Ohio as a patient for treatment or health care services. If you have any questions about this Notice, please contact your caregiver. You may also call VNA of Ohio at 216-931-1300.

Entities Covered by Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio Notice of Privacy Practices This Privacy Notice pertains to Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio and all of its affiliates and service entities, including but not limited to:

Our Commitment to Privacy Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy, we provide this notice explaining our online information practices. Information gathered by VNA of Ohio is used to monitor our site’s effectiveness and to respond to your questions and requests. When you contact us, we need to collect some personal information from you. The types of personally identifiable information that we collect include: name and e-mail address. We collect this information only so that we can respond to your message. We do not share this information with any other organization.